1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a reproduction or recording device, and more particularly, to a reproduction or recording device in which a pause state can be set and canceled during reproduction or recording of audio data using onto a disc-type recording medium using an optical recording system or a magneto-optical recording system.
2. Description of the Background Art
A special device for reproducing digital audio data from a disc having digital audio data recorded by an optical reproduction system (referred to as a "disc player" hereinafter) is proposed, wherein continuous reproduction of digital audio data can be carried out by sequentially storing into a memory digital, audio data continuously read out from a disc, and sequentially reading out the stored data from the memory. As a result of employing such a reproduction method, it is expected that continuous reproduced audio data can be obtained by continuously reading out in sequence audio data stored in the memory once, and rapidly supplying data to the memory by driving the disc at a high speed for a predetermined time period after the pickup is restored to the original track position to read out audio data, even the in case where there is a tracking error the pickup due to vibration during reproduction that results in a drop in the audio data read out from the disc A disc player employing such technique is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 3-3165, for example.
It is to be noted that there is no teaching in the document of the prior art of providing means for setting and canceling a pause state during reproduction in a disc player employing the above-described technique. However, there is a possibility of a drop in the reproduced sound when a pause state is canceled in the case where a pause state is set during the reproduction operation to interrupt provision of reproduced sound in the above-described disc player.
Although the pickup enters a reproduction standby state once a pause state is set to interrupt read out of audio data from the disc, there is a possibility of a tracking failure by the pickup when the pause state is canceled, so that the supply of reproduced audio data to the memory cannot be restarted In such a case, audio data is read out continuously from the memory even when the pickup is trying an access of the reproduction track position. Therefore, if the amount of remaining data stored in the memory is not sufficient at the time of canceling the pause state, the memory may become empty during the time period the pickup tries to access the track to result in discontinuity in the reproduced sound.
A device has been proposed recently that records intermittently compressed audio data on a disc using the magneto-optical recording principle (referred to as a "disc recorder" hereinafter). Because this disc recorder carries out intermittent recording on a magneto-optical disc with audio data of approximately two seconds for each channel provided from an audio signal source that is compressed into approximately 0.4 seconds as one recording unit (1 cluster), it is necessary to provide a memory that can temporarily store compressed data for recording of at least 1 cluster. By providing a memory of sufficient capacity, re-recording can be made possible even when tracking error of a pickup occurs due to vibration during recording.
However, such a provision of means for setting and canceling a pause state during recording operation in such a disc recorder will cause problems as set forth in the following. When a pause state is set during recording, there is a problem of the audio data already stored in the memory prior to the setting of pause not being recorded on a disc if the intermittent recording operation from the memory to the disc is ceased merely in response to the pause state setting.
Although the pickup enters a record standby state to interrupt recording of audio data to a disc when a pause state is set, there is a possibility of tracking failure by the pickup at the time of canceling the pause state so that recording of audio data to the disc cannot be restarted. Because the audio data for recording from an audio signal source is continuously provided to the memory even during the time period when the pickup is attempting to access the recording track position, there is a possibility of the memory becoming full during a failure of the pickup in accessing the track if the amount of the data stored in the memory is great at the time of canceling the pause state. Such a situation results in discontinuity in the recording sound.